Knowledge centre

Alertis secures grant

17-07-2013

Alertis helped Snow Leopard Foundation (SLF) in Pakistan in securing an important grant of €10,000 from the Prince Bernhard Nature Fund in the Netherlands. A great boost for endangered bears in Pakistan! Alertis has financially supported the imperative research by the SLF for a year now and will continue its support for the coming year as well.

The Himalayan brown bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus), a critically endangered species in some of its range, has a population of 150-200 animals in Pakistan. The populations in Pakistan are slow reproducing, small, and declining because of habitat loss, fragmentation, poaching, and bear baiting.

The Pamir Range (in Gilgit-Baltistan) is a promising habitat for bears, and a landscape corridor connecting bear populations in Pakistan to the central Asia. Contrary to its strategic importance, very limited information about bears occurrence, status and threats to survival is available. This project intends to investigate current status of brown bears and its conflicts with local communities, while promoting tolerance for bears in the region through environmental education.